This invention relates to cigar lighters, especially those for motor vehicles, and more precisely luminous cigar lighters, that is to say those which can emit light in the dark.
One cigar lighter of the above type is described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,539. It comprises a lighter body which constitutes a receptacle for a removable heating plug. The receptacle has an aperture through which the plug is introduced, and this aperture is surrounded by an illuminating ring which gives out light in the dark, when the appropriate electrical circuit is completed.
Cigar lighters are also known which have a lighter body and removable heating plug which are themselves luminous. The plug has a surface on which the user presses so as to push the plug into its heating position in the lighter body, and on which a symbol, which for example represents a lighted cigarette, is lit up by a diode located within the heating plug and supplied with power through the lighter body when the plug is in position in the latter.
Other types of cigar lighter have been proposed in which the heating plug is luminous but the construction of which is more simple and less expensive than that of the foregoing cigar lighters. For example, it is known from French patent specification No. FR 2 630 057 to provide a luminous cigar lighter, especially for motor vehicles, comprising a lighter body constituting a receptacle for a luminous and removable heating plug, the said plug comprising a fixed part and a moving part which is displaceable axially with respect to, and inside, the said fixed part, the moving part of the plug including a push button, the plug further including a light guide for propagating the light transmitted to it from a light source external to the heating plug when the heating plug is in position in the lighter body.
Because the light source inside the heating plug is eliminated, the construction of a cigar lighter according to this invention is simplified, and by the same token its manufacturing cost is reduced. On the other hand, such a cigar lighter does not give the same illumination of the heating plug, according to whether the latter is in its rest (or standby) position or in its heating position.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the above mentioned drawback.
According to the invention, a luminous cigar lighter, especially for motor vehicles, comprising a lighter body constituting a receptacle for a luminous and removable heating plug, the said plug comprising a fixed part and a moving part which is displaceable axially with respect to, and inside, the said fixed part, the moving part of the plug including a push button, the plug further including a light guide for propagating the light transmitted to it from a light source external to the heating plug when the heating plug is in position in the lighter body, is characterised in that the said light guide is an element of the said fixed part of the heating plug that surrounds the push button.
The light is preferably colored by the light guide. Preferably, the light guide is at least partially flush with a gripping surface of the heating plug. The said gripping surface corresponds to that on which the user puts his fingers in order to grip the heating plug to draw it out of the lighter body. Thus, when the light guide is flush with the said surface, it shows the user where to put his fingers.
The heating plug preferably comprises a tube of translucent plastics material. This tube preferably constitutes an external sleeve around a push button, with the external surface of this tube corresponding to at least part of the gripping surface.
According to another preferred feature of the invention, the lighter body is mounted on a fascia panel and comprises an illuminating sleeve visible on the fascia panel and surrounding the aperture through which the heating plug is introduced into the lighter body, so as to mark the position of the cigar lighter and transmit light to the heating plug when the latter is in the lighter body. Thus, the cigar lighter is located in the vehicle by means of the illuminating sleeve when the heating plug is not in its receptacle, and by the heating plug when it is.
According to a further preferred feature of the invention, the illuminating sleeve and light guide each having at least one lighting zone, at least one lighting zone of the said sleeve is colored differently from at least one lighting zone of the said guide, so that the cigar lighter emits differently colored light when the heating plug is in position in the lighter body and when it is not in position therein.
Preferably, the light source consists of light guides or diodes or light bulbs.
Further features and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly on a reading of the following detailed description of some preferred embodiments of the invention, which are given by way of non-limiting example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings.